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Nick Barlow

@nickbwalking.bsky.social

1.2K followers 590 following 3.2K posts

Writer, walker, Who and Wolves fan. Lives in Whitehaven. Lots of other things that don't begin with W. https://linktr.ee/nickbarlow He/him Avatar: Me (50ish man with greying hair and beard) smiling at the camera.

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 16h

"What if we took the socially isolated people with an already tenuous grasp on reality and hooked them even deeper into the delusion confirmation machine?"

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 21h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 16h

The experts suddenly demanding they both choose to leave after two weeks of insisting she should work on it is pretty dodgy. Would be nice if they could occasionally hold their hands up and say "we were wrong."

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 1d

Obviously a fake, because anyone deep enough into Who to be paid for writing about it would insist on making clear the parts of it they don't like.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 1d

The real criticism of modern Trek series is that none of them are anywhere near as horny as TOS and especially TNG were.

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 1d

The "core premise of the franchise" is Gene Roddenberry realising you can do alien worlds on the cheap by reusing old sets and costumes and saying "everyone on this planet thinks they're a Chicago mobster."

Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 2d

Every Star Trek series gets progressively worse because they keep forgetting the core premise of the franchise. It's supposed to be a utopian future based around science and exploration, not some gritty action thriller.

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 1d

I'm guessing it'll involve getting the Saudis to build a stadium for 2034 in Gaza.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 1d

Remains possible that his connection to Ghislaine Maxwell was because he wanted to know how her dad kept the shell game going.

Montana Skeptic @montanaskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

It's all one enterprise. Musk, Inc. As Tesla shareholders will discover as soon as Elon can get his hands on Tesla's cash to shovel into the xAI cash incinerator.

electrek.co/2025/10/13/e...

Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are buying Tesla's unsold Cybertrucks

Hundreds of Tesla Cybertrucks have been spotted being delivered Elon Musk’s private companies, SpaceX and xAI, as Tesla is having...

electrek.co

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Reposted by Nick Barlow

nicola @gleanniucha.bsky.social · 7d

Please, if good television matters to you, repost or repackage this video until everyone you follow has seen it

#televisionmatters

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Reposted by Nick Barlow

TransActual @transactualuk.bsky.social · 2d

🚨This is an emergency🚨

This Government is currently sitting on an EHRC Code of Practice that will lead to the segregation and exclusion of trans people in public life.

Use our tool to email your MP: tinyurl.com/scrap-the-bathroom-ban

@transsolidarity.bsky.social
#ScrapTheBathroomBan

Image of a flashing red siren. Text reads: Scrap the Bathroom Ban This is an emergency. Tell your MP to say no to segregation. Write to your MP: tinyurl.com/scrap-the-bathroom-ban

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 2d

Wonder how much of the Green membership surge is people who were primed to get (back) involved in party politics through Your Party deciding to go elsewhere when YP decided to jump straight to the factional in-fighting?

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 2d

The original fascists ended up with all the wrong answers but they at least were asking questions about how to deal with a world that had changed utterly and rapidly. The modern ones are just "things have changed and I don't like it."

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

Someone I know on FB was complaining "when it doesn't know the answer it makes something up" and I was thinking "oh, you're so close to getting it but you won't".

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

I think a lot of people never quite understood what a search engine was doing, and assume that ChatGPT is just the latest version of "box you type in for answers"

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

Not claiming to be any sort of dating success person, but this all feels like a hell of a lot of effort just to get dates with people you're not actually compatible with.

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 3d

WELL THEN IT'S NOT MEANINGFUL IS IT, NICK www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

They need to bring back Alex's absolutely terrifying Miranda stare for Halloween. #Strictly

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

Someone in the #Strictly production office has been saying "the Thunderbirds theme would be great for a Paso" for years and has finally got their wish.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

If you see this QRP with a game that released the year you were born.

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

Had someone who used to tell me as a councillor how we needed to do more to support the arts sticking some AI art on a post because "it costs too much to get art done properly."

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

The Harbour itaelf is currently a particularly Trumpian shade because of iron ochre leaking into a stream from some old mine workings.

Whitehaven Harbour, showing grey-looking water mixing with an orange-tinged flow from the other side

A small boat entering Whitehaven Harbour

An information board from the harbour commissioners explaining the orange water.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 3d

Whitehaven Harbour would like to enter the "when was Britain last invaded?" chat.

A plaque on the old watch tower at Whotehaven Harbour saying that John Paul Jones' raid was the last invasion of Britain.

The old stone watch tower on the old Quay at Whitehaven Harbour

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 4d

"We've decided you can't afford a new boiler so we've taken out your old one and sold it to a friend of ours. He'll come round every few days and sell you hot water at a fiver a bucket."

A blue van for Cameron Osborn plumbing and heating.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 4d

There's a weird comedy curse going on where he's become Alan Partridge.

Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 4d

Visions of what the future would be are usually more interesting than the future itself turns out to be.

Reposted by Nick Barlow

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 4d

he also said that 80% of antifa's members are landlords and if you lower the cost of housing, you basically starve the network of its financing

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Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 4d

Floored Genius is a collection of songs that in another version of the 80s would have made Julian Cope an absolutely massive star.